YOU COULDN’T MAKE IT UP

This is an extract from mySummer (Half) Term 2017/18 'SEN Update' entitled: “THAT'S NOT HOW IT'S MEANT TO BE!”​that was released on 8th June 2018.

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​As I run a national practice and represent parents of children and young people themselves with SEN, I find that I often have to travel around the country for hearings.

I always like to travel up the afternoon/evening before and stay close to the venue, so that I know that I will arrive fresh and in good time ready for the hearing the next morning. (I am afraid that, as a physically disabled person using a wheelchair, it can take me a couple of hours to get ready, as opposed to other people, who can catch a train in the morning, or be up and ready and checked out of their hotel within 15-30 minutes!)I usually stay in a standard Travelodge or Premier Inn and book into a ‘disability’ room, as I know from experience that these are standardised and larger for me to move around in my wheelchair, as well as meeting other disability-friendly accessibility requirements. However, once in a while, I need to travel abroad by myself and book into a more standard hotel, but again in a ‘disability’ room.

Please believe me when I say that there is definitely no standard form of what a ‘disability’ room means in some countries and I have stayed in hotels in some countries where things are really accessible and well thought out, but I have also stayed in some real ‘dives’ where their idea of a ‘disability’ room is really nothing more than sticking up a grab rail in the bathroom! But the story that I want to share with you in this Update is when I found myself booked into a ‘boutique’ hotel (in their supposed ‘disability’ room).From the outside and initial internal look of the hotel, there seemed to be nothing wrong and I was therefore quite looking forward to my (three-day) stay. Little did I know though, how difficult things would be for me…I won’t bore you by telling you everything that I found challenging, but although my room looked lovely when the porter opened the door for me (I needed help to bring my bag to the room), I immediately saw that there was no room in it for me to move about in my wheelchair. Fortunately, the porter immediately apologised and said he would take a large table and chairs out of the room.But after he left and I then went to use the bathroom, I found that I could not really get into it in my wheelchair. After spending some time carefully manually manoeuvring myself around, I just managed to get in, but then found that the bathroom mirror had been put up too high for me to see myself in whilst sitting in my wheelchair and when I then went to have a shower to freshen up, I found that the towels had been folded and placed too high on a rail for me to be able to reach.

I therefore had to ring reception (who apologised again) to get someone to come to get the towels down for me. I then found that the shower did not have sufficient rails for me to hold onto for me to have a shower in safely (I was already quite tired, as I had been travelling all day and realised that I was by myself in a room where there was no emergency cord for me to call someone to help me, in case I slipped and fell (I will tell you another story about when this actually happened to me, in a future update).

I bet you think that’s it, but I’m afraid that there’s more…I went to bed and got up in the morning, feeling a lot fresher after a good night’s sleep. I managed to get into the bathroom, got dressed and went to breakfast, which I knew was served in a room on the roof. Imagine my surprise and disappointment though, to then find that the lift only took me to the floor one level below the roof and that there was a set of stairs for me to then negotiate to get me to the room serving breakfast.I therefore had to get back in the lift and go down to reception personally (where I received another apology) who then arranged for me to have breakfast sent up to my room, to which I had to return to.

​And all of these same things happened to me again for the next two days.That’s not how it’s meant to be!

With best wishes

Douglas

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